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"We can't afford another hit," responded Midi, Savaphoong's chief pilot on the
Espiritu Luzon. "Best we cover you."
"I will give chase" came ben Suda's voice. "This one has made me very angry."
His ship didn't appear to be in much better shape than the others, but he
sounded as if he could track the Val by sheer willpower.
Aboard Kaotan, Ikira Sukotae was back in her element and very glad to be
there.
"Break off!" Dura Panoshka said urgently. "There's a Val bearing down on us
and it'll be in range in under four minutes. We're sitting ducks here in
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geostationary orbit!"
"No," the tiny captain responded. "Shields full along the flanks and watch out
that he doesn't go under and come up on the planet side. Bring the throttle up
full but do not release. I'm gonna give Vulture those four minutes."
Well away from the action, Raven was getting worried. "I'm registering energy
flares on the Val ship. I think he's going to be operational again in just a
couple of minutes, and there's nothing we can do about it." He opened a common
carrier channel. "This is Lightning to damaged Val ship. Cease repairs and
maintain standoff or I will be forced to ram."
"You wish to commit suicide?" came a response in a low, pleasant baritone.
"I do not, but if I let you get going again, I'm dead meat anyway. Might as
well take you with me."
The Val was disconcerted and sensed that reasonable argument wouldn't meet
with much success. It stopped testing its repaired lines, but it knew it could
not
accept such a standoff. A stalemate was as good as a defeat since the
remaining ships would still be there, and with only one operable Val left in
service there would be little chance of victory. It knew from its companion
that the other ships were all damaged to some degree, but that made little
difference. While the companion was chasing after Kaotan, the other four
renegades would have time to make repairs of their own. There was little
choice.
The instant the Val ship moved, Raven took a deep mental breath and pushed the
throttle. Gaining speed with every second, he followed a course straight for
the
Val, while Warlock began firing with every available weapon, forcing their
opponent to abandon its defense and get to full throttle.
The Val ship flared into brilliance, then winked out.
It took a second for Warlock to react, and then she was initially puzzled.
"Did it get away or did we get it?"
"Whew!" Raven sighed. "I thought I was going to the land of my ancestors
there.
It blew up. I have lots of scattered debris in the scan, almost all small. One
down, one to go. Kaotan, you get the hell out of there!"
The transmuter receiver installed on Kaotan hummed, and Vulture more fell than
stepped off the plate. He was a bloody mess, and it looked as if he'd taken
numerous shots to the body, but he was alive. Sabir and the Chows crowded
around him and Takya Mudabur knelt beside him. "No one could survive such
wounds,"
she said sorrowfully.
Ikira Sukotae didn't wait for a medical report. She released the engines and
moved at flank speed out of orbit at an angle that took the ship away from the
Val. Reacting instantly, the Val changed course to pursue and let loose a
pattern of fire that did not quite reach Kaotan. It was clear that even
damaged the Val had an edge in speed and maneuverability over the old
freebooter freighter. And Sukotae could not depend on Bahakatan for help; it
simply couldn't catch up.
Kaotan, however, was undamaged, and Sukotae was not about to take on the Val
alone. She had the ring aboard and the rest of the people from Janipur; her
first duty was to safeguard them. She didn't have speed for a really big
punch, but it wouldn't matter, clearly the Val had lost its punch power and
could not follow. Kaotan punched just as the Val closed to within range.
The Val wasted no time on lost opportunities. If it could not stop the
getaway, then the least it could do was cost the enemy as much as possible. It
turned and headed back at full throttle toward Indrus and San Cristobal.
"It's coming back in!" Santiago reported. "E.T.A. five minutes twenty-five
seconds. Indrus cannot move and my shielding is completely gone. Can you move
in, Espiritu Luzon?"
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"Negative! This thing handles worse than a freighter at the best of times and
I
have damage. I will try to get in some good shots if I can, but all it has to
do is skim to within your range opposite my position and I won't be able to
stop it. The best I can do is position myself so we'll know where its best
shooting
position is. That will allow you to concentrate your fire on its salvos."
"Bahakatan here. I can't get back in time, but I noticed in its pursuit of
Kaotan that it used no beam weapons at all. I believe the Val has been forced
to divert all energy to its engines in order to maintain speed,
maneuverability, and shielding. If someone could get in behind it, it might be
vulnerable."
"Here we go!" Santiago called. "Angle is right where we figured. No vector to
the ship, but we might be able to hit most or all of the torpedoes. We'll
see."
The Val came in on an arc that placed it within range for only three seconds,
not enough to be worth firing at, but it loosed its full complement of twelve
torpedoes in a zigzag spread pattern at the two crippled ships. Three got
through the withering fire; two of those hit Indrus but failed to penetrate
the shields. The third, however, came straight into San Cristobal's
midsection, nearly tearing the ship in half and knocking out all power.
The Val looped and came back for a second run, its tubes reloaded. The last
pattern, so perfect yet so erratic, indicated that the Val was leaving the
ship on preprogrammed automatic pilot and guiding in the torpedoes itself. It
let loose the whole series aimed at Indrus, following the same pattern as
before.
With Espiritu Luzon laying off and San Cristobal as good as destroyed, there
was little chance for Indrus to pick off more man half the incoming missiles.
The Val, unlike humans, could consciously perform many functions at the same
time, but guiding twelve missiles under fire was stretching itself to its
limit.
It noticed the sensor call of another punch, but so many of the torpedoes were
getting through, it didn't dare stop and look.
Indrus' guns had done a good job, but four missiles got through, all
converging on a single spot near the tail section where the engines were. The
ship reeled and began spinning; its entire aft section in one direction, the
rest of it in another. Noting this, the Val turned to take on its new
attacker, and immediately fired its entire forward battery. It was to no
avail.
Thunder's huge ram scoops were open wide like the jaws of a mighty beast, and
before the Val could react, its entire ship was engulfed in the ram and
processed by the great converters into energy. No other ship in service could
have accomplished that feat; Thunder was so enormous that it ate asteroids
larger than the Val ship just to feed its mighty engines.
"Everyone remain where you are," Star Eagle called. "I will come to you. The
most badly damaged to the cargo bays, the ones with any real power to the
outside docks. Espiritu Luzon and Bahakatan approach and look for survivors. I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]